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It amazes me that more of our clients don’t ask us about how to build an email marketing list for their business. In fact, we’ve had some tell us that they don’t want to build one because they don’t see the point.

Building an email list is one of the most important things a business can do, and here are some reasons why:

1. Sales lead generation. Think about it: these are people who have actually opted in and said, “Yes, I am interested in what your brand offers, and how it can benefit me.” Why wouldn’t you want to have a list of these people compiled, ready to go whenever you have a message you’d like to blast out? If your brand introduces a new product, or has a special announcement, why post to social media and hope your customers see it when you can deliver the message directly to their inbox?

According to renowned marketer Neil Patel, email continually outperforms other channels that he’s tested. Not only does he see a high conversion rate, but email blasts bring a focused audience back to his site on a continual basis.

2. You “own” it. I consider social media followers to be “rented” because you’re just borrowing space on the social platform, and playing by its rules. These sites can update their algorithms at any time, reducing your organic reach, wiping out some of your fans, removing your reviews, and more. But with email you will not lose any of the momentum you’ve built up (unless people unsubscribe).

3. It’s cost-effective. Besides word-of-mouth and positive online reviews, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your brand. Using social media to build an email list doesn’t cost much, and email marketing platforms such as MailChimp or Constant Contact are fairly inexpensive. And if you compare these costs to direct mail, you can really see savings.

4. You’ll gain insight on what consumers want. When testing ways to build your email list, you’ll learn a bit about how to capture your customer’s interest. For example, creating a contest where users subscribe for a chance to win a prize might be a way to generate emails in a short amount of time. Or maybe they are more interested in subscribing to receive a special coupon. You will learn how to get them to act, which can help when promoting sales and products.

Also, once you have built up a list, you can experiment with different copy, creative, and campaign concepts to discover what works and what doesn’t.

Tell us why you built your company’s email list, and how it's helped your digital marketing strategy in the comments!